IBO’s annual Industrial Design Awards recognize recently introduced products whose physical appearance and features make a distinct and valuable impression, enable the products’ functionality and successfully communicate the products’ messages. In a more general sense, the Awards highlight how the looks of the products make people want to use the products.

The IBO Industrial Design Awards encompass three categories: analytical instruments, laboratory equipment (page 6) and portable analytical instruments (page 7). Criteria include visual appeal, innovation and functionality, but not performance. To be eligible for the 2013 Awards, products must have begun shipping between August 2012 and July 2013.

The three winners of IBO’s 2013 Industrial Design Awards for Analytical Instruments utilize modern design attributes, including clean lines, shapely curves and integrated features, to create a striking appearance that sets them apart from their competitors and suggest innovation and expertise. The design elements of each system are integral to the product’s purpose and its relationship with the user, particularly in creating an inviting and intuitive user experience.

Gold Award

The 2013 IBO Gold Award for Analytical Instrument Industrial Design goes to Fluidigm’s C1 Single-Cell AutoPrep System. Rounded edges, a sloping black recessed line and metallic finish create a modern, sleek profile that suggests innovation and sophistication. The system’s compact form and rounded front with large touchscreen provides a friendly and familiar interface, similar to consumer products. According to the website of IDE, the design firm that worked with Fluidigm on the product, the touchscreen is all glass, like an iPad.

With a list price of $150,000, the C1 measures 41 x 66 x 48 cm (16 x 26 x 19 in) and weighs 47 kg (103 lb). Using Fluidigm’s Integrated Fluidic Circuit (IFC) microfluidic technology, the C1 automates the isolation, lysis and pre-amplification of single cells.

Making something that looked “cool” was the goal of the industrial design, according to Fluidigm President and CEO Gajus Worthington. “We wanted it to be something that when customers saw it they’d say, ‘that looks cool,’ and they’d be proud to own one.” Although the C1’s design was not created to appeal to any specific subset of life science researchers, it was conceived to reflect the latest in industrial design. As he explained, “Frankly, our customers deserve it. If they’re going to pay this much money for one of these machines, it should look great.”

Guiding the concept of the industrial design for the C1 was sports cars. “We used the car analogy a lot internally. We told firms, ‘we want you to think sports car when you look at this.’ We want it to look like it’s going to get up and move,” said Mr. Worthington. The swooping black line creates the effect, as well as conveying an impression of compactness and guiding the user to the shuttle door, which glides open, presenting the drawer onto which a loaded IFC Array is placed. “There was a lot of attention put into how to convey forward motion in the industrial design. That resulted in some of the curvature of the system, some of the angling of the front screen,” he said.

The user interface (UI) is another area where design considerations increased functionality. “We went to a touchscreen interface for the system, and in the UI for that, we designed much larger icons,” said Mr. Worthington. “Sometimes researchers have things in their hand, [and] they can’t use the very tips of their fingers to touch things, so much larger icons [are used] so that they can touch them with their knuckles or maybe with their elbows, if they need to.”

Multiple details of the user’s experience are incorporated into the C1’s design. “[There is] a lot of contrast in the UI: dark backgrounds and bright icons that were larger, so that you can swipe them easily,” said Mr. Worthington. “The other thing that we did is we put more animation in the UI. So during steps when the user has to wait for something, you don’t just have one of these annoying screens . . . we made the background, which is a blowup of the chip architecture, so you can see [the sample] moving through the chip architecture as you’re waiting for it.”

Silver Award

The winner of IBO’s 2013 Silver Award for Industrial Design for Analytical Instruments is Shimadzu’s HMV-G Series Micro Vickers Hardness Testers. The system’s modern and bold design stands out among similar products. Utilizing a curved frame softened by a bright color scheme, the HMV-G Series’ strong profile communicates technical sophistication but also robustness and accessibility. The system measures 350 x 570 x 540 mm (14 x 22 x 21 in) and weighs 44–48 kg (97–106 lb), depending on configuration. US prices range from $15,000 for the HMV-G20S to $63,000 for the HMV-G-FA-D.

The HMV-G Series’ frame is not only a striking design feature but also enables a key user function. “The initial design concept was based on feedback from customers who wanted a system that could better accommodate different sample types,” said Terry Adams, vice president of Marketing at Shimadzu Scientific Instruments. “The expanded depth of the workspace improves operability, while the opening at the center of the frame improves visibility by adopting the arc-type frame, which is not in conventional hardness testers,” he explained. “The new design makes it easy to measure long and large-area samples.”

Designing the HMV-G Series to be compact and incorporating the frame were among of the main industrial design challenges. “In general, the trend is to engineer instruments that are more compact while retaining performance features, such as stability. That’s always a challenge,” explained Mr. Adams. “The biggest difficulty was designing the frame so all kinds of samples could be tested easily and effectively.”

Based on customer feedback, Shimadzu also sought to make the HMV-G Series easy to use. “Providing automated readings was also a goal in order to eliminate the human factor when reading the hardness,” said Mr. Adams. To increase automation, the frame is designed with a built-in CCD camera. “The primary models in the HMV-G series feature an automatic indentation-detection function. This function helps prevent human measurement errors and achieve simple and accurate measurements,” he noted. “Additionally, the camera’s automatic lens switching function adjusts the lens to suit the size of the indentation.”

Flexibility allows for the choice of use with a computer or LCD touch panel. “One single test window shows all information necessary at a glance, making image quality adjustments easy,” commented Mr. Adams.

The industrial design also intended to distinguish the HMV-G Series in terms of marketing. “Simply put, in our opinion, it’s not just another hardness tester,” commented Mr. Adams. “It represents a new design that carefully considers what customers both want and need.”

Bronze Award

IBO’s 2013 Bronze Award for Industrial Design for Analytical Instruments goes to Bruker’s EVOQ triple quadrupole MS, part of the EVOQ Qube, EVOQ Elite and the EVOQ Elite ER LC/MS systems. Utilizing subtle curves, contrasting colors and balanced features, the EVOQ is a fresh take on triple quadrupole MS design. The industrial design also emphasizes the system’s compact size and usability with a clean, inviting user interface while reinforcing the brand with Bruker’s signature round inlet cover. The EVOQ measures 53 x 45 x 70 cm (21 x 18 x 28 in) and weighs 68 kg (193 lb). Pricing of the systems listed above ranges from $199,000 to $289,000.

Parts of the EVOQ’s industrial design are inspired by surfing and jet engines, according to Rohan A. Thakur, senior vice president, Commercial Operations, at Bruker, who said the design sought to “to bring a fun element into the boring world of square box scientific instruments.” The design also had to showcase the EVOQ’s compact design, a selling point, especially in Asian markets. “The slotted panel on the left, where the divert valve is located, was made a dark blue color because it helps draw the eye to the gentle curve of the fascia and make the instrument silhouette appear smaller,” he said.

The design also communicates more subtle messages. “The embossed EVOQ badge was placed vertically over a complex curve, once again to draw the eye upwards and make the instrument look sleek to denote its message of ‘speedy’ analysis,” said Mr. Thakur. “The idea was to make the aesthetics so good that it drew you in for further examination.”

However, as Mr. Thakur explained, technical concerns were the priority and one that the design complements. “The technical priorities always led the design—we used metal where we needed good thermal protection, and the compound curves were a result of covering a portion of the instrument that sticks out a bit towards the bottom,” he explained. “We used this area to draw air from the laboratory and drive it through the electronics to cool them, and exhaust it from the back of the instrument,” he said.

The cooling of the electronics is another way the design increases functionality. “Designing a container that is aesthetic and functions to drive heat out from the inside and exhaust it to the outside, while protecting the electronics from chemical spills and the user, was the challenge,” explained Mr. Thakur. “The thermal management means better reliability and robustness, both major benefits to the user.”